The present invention may be used in conjunction with the method and system set out in co-pending UK patent applications number 0205751.1 of 12 Mar. 2002 and 0305650.4 of 12 Mar. 2003, and also in International patent application number PCT/GB03/01047 of 12 Mar. 2003 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/388,210 of 12 Mar. 2003, the full disclosures of which are hereby incorporated into the present application by reference.
Traditionally, electronic data generated by a computer may be stored in the computer's random access memory (RAM), on a hard disk drive (HDD) or saved onto a floppy disk by way of a floppy disk drive. Floppy disks are cheap and portable, but are slow to access, have limited storage space and are not physically robust.
However, many computer users implement a natural data storage strategy, often as part of a wider strategy, whereby data (including documents, spreadsheets and other files or the like) are saved from the computer to one or more floppy disks, and the floppy disks are then stored on a desktop or shelf or the like in the form of a stack or pile. The stack or pile may, as a natural consequence of the order of creation or last use of the data in question, be ordered roughly chronologically. The floppy disks may, by more organised or fastidious users, be externally labelled and/or indexed by date and/or content, and provide a natural filing system for data and documents.
Embodiments of the present invention seek both to apply this natural storage strategy in a significantly more powerful way, and to effect a combination of multiple devices to make a single, logical device (“stack”) that affords a user (or a computer system) an effectively infinite storage capacity.